Monday, June 27, 2016

Good week

It was another great week! I'm just going to share a couple of cool experiences and call it at that! Sometimes I don't know what to say;) 

So on Tuesday we met with Benson and he was awesome! He told us that he already arranged to have work off on the third so he can come to church. That was before we even invited him! It is so cool to see that some people are out here actually searching for the truth and they are so willing to act when they start to hear the message! 

Thursday we met with Chen Tian Lin and her little brother Chen Yuan Xi. We have been meeting with them for almost my whole time here and they are pretty much ready to be baptized but their dad wants them to be older and more mature before they decide.. Well we started asking them about their goals and Tian Lin's answer was amazing.. One of the best things that has ever happened;) She said "I want to work this summer and then start school.. And endure to the end" Hahaha And my mouth just kinda dropped cause I was so happy to hear that;) They are both truly converted, but they are having a tough time getting to church consistently still! So we'll be helping them out with that! And they also said it's looking like their dad will respect their decision and let them be baptized! Wonderful miracles!! 

Hmm.. Then on Saturday every appointment we had canceled and we spent hours outside knocking on houses! It was super super hot and humid! The heat has taken me to the point where when we sit down I start falling asleep.. It's pretty fun! I really enjoy it though! It is fun to push through different struggles and stuff! And I'm yet to fall all the way asleep;) Also we met a man on the street and he wouldn't talk to us.. He just like shook our hand and got really close to us and it was kinda uncomfortable.. But then we found out that he is deaf and so we wrote to him and invited him to church and got a phone number and it turned out to be his dad so I talked to him for a second and he just said that his son is deaf and having some problems and then we told him where the church was and got the thumbs up and went on our way.. Well yesterday he came to church! Which was a huge miracle! Absolutely awesome! And then my companion spent all of sacrament meeting learning chinese sign language and trying to communicate with him! He stayed the whole time and came back at night for our potluk/family home evening so I think he liked it! Really cool! Thank goodness he can read or we'd be done for!

Also on the way to church this kid was riding his bike and I asked him if he wanted to come to church with us. He said what do you do at church. I said sing and pray and listen to talks. He said okay I'll come check it out! Haha then it turned out that Elder Diepeveen and I had knocked into him in April and shared a lesson with him! Kinda cool! He thought church was really boring though.. We'll see:) 

Haha and then May the malaysian came to church as well and she's super cool! 

That's some highlights from our week! There are a few more in the pictures! We had a fun week! Got to lift a bed to the second floor by standing on a car.. Got to go on a cool hike! Things are going great here and we are looking forward to helping all of these people continue to progress toward their baptismal dates! 

Then as a little spiritual share I'd just like to invite everyone to think about where they'd be standing in Lehi's dream about the tree of life. Have we started eating the fruit and noticed others making fun of us and wandered off? Are we holding strong to the rod? Are we eating the fruit and trying to bring others to eat it as well? Lots of different places to be.. I'd just like to encourage everyone to keep holding on! I know that fruit is worth it! If you've tasted it and left come back.. If you are tasting it now don't leave! 

I love you all! 

Love, Elder Jensen!

Pictures!





May.... And more hiking 


Monday, June 13, 2016

Year Mark

Well this week was pretty sweet! We just did missionary work and the usual! On Tuesday after District meeting we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Lindahl and we had a super great time! I really like Elder Lindahl a lot.. He's a great guy! Great friend.. Any way on Wednesday I woke up early at there house and went to the train station to go with some other Elders to Taibei for a few meetings and that was fun too! 

Then on Friday it was my year mark on the mission!! Haha it was a pretty interesting day! Elder Tan had an investigator from before getting baptized in Taibei and so he went with a zone leader in the xinzhu zone to that while I stayed with some people in Xinzhu and went finding! Well after the baptism it was already pretty late and they ended up having to take the train because their ride fell through. So I ended up staying in the Xinzhu elders apartment for a surprise exchange because the two others didn't get home early enough for us to bike home! It was quite an adventure!! 

In other news the week here was pretty average! The family is just hanging on by a thread.. We are doing everything we can to get them progressing but they are not super interested right now..

I will share a miracle or two from this week though:)

We went to meet with this girl who was a referral from the Xinzhu Elders and we got there and were waiting for a few minutes and she ended up not coming! But we started talking to this guy sitting at a table at the 7-11 there and he told us that he loved Jesus. We invited him to sit down with us and we taught him a quick lesson and invited him to be baptized and he accepted! He was one of the coolest people I've ever met out here. He looked like a full grown man but he was 14. He was smoking and he likes to rock climb. He seemed to have a had a pretty tough life but he looked like he had things pretty under control and he was the nicest kid ever. No one hear hugs and he just gave us big hugs when he left! Just a couple minutes with him and we were like best friends!! 

The Lord puts people in our path! We got stood up but that great kid came out of it! 

Also I was feeling a little down because we don't have many people progressing and have lost a few people.. But in church the lesson was about being great and we learned that a great person is someone who does the little things. Often unnoticed but in the end they really will have had a big impact on people. It gave me a lot of encouragement to just keep giving it my all and doing the little things cause in the end they will have a big impact! 

That is all for this week! It has been a great first year out here.. The Lord really takes care of us! I love you all! Have a great week:) 

Love Elder Jensen! 

Pictures- I've got nothing sorry!

Monday, June 6, 2016

New and Old

This last week were transfers and Elder Diepeveen moved out! So I will be staying here in Xiangshan for another 6 weeks! Puts me here for like 7 months;) I can't believe that.. It has gone super fast! But I have a new companion! His name is Elder Tan and he is from Malaysia! Which means that he speaks fluent English and Chinese! That has already been quite different! We have never had any problems communicating with people, but with Elder Tan here the communication is raised to a different level! And I'm just getting to watch and try to soak it all in! Maybe someday I'll speak that fast and fluently;) Anyway he is super cool and I'm enjoying serving with him so far! It is a big adjustment for sure! I have been living with someone from Lehi for like 7 months and now I'm not! But it is great! 

Okay so this last week Elder Diepeveen and I went out with Sunny and her husband and had a good preparation day exploring some places in Xinzhu that we had never been before! Then on Tuesday we had a great Zone meeting on overcoming fear and having faith! That is something good to be reminded of! Sometimes I feel fearless.. Other times I feel quite the opposite and have to remember to consciously choose faith and then it gets better:)

Then Elder Tan came in and it was kinda of crazy as we are trying to get him used to the area and meet all of our investigators and stuff! We had a super fun night on Saturday!! We went over to the Huang families and we made dinner for them! We made Taco's and they turned out super good!! I don't think that they'd ever eaten anything like that before! It was cool to be around them and cooking and build our relationships with them. They are all progressing! Some faster than others.. Only one of them made it to church on Sunday but it was still great! 

Then at church An An was confirmed!!! It was such a relief to have that all go over smoothly! After problem after problem with her baptism her confirmation went over really really well! Not a single problem:) We are so happy for her!! 

I have learned a lot from Elder Tan already and I'm looking forward to our time together! It will be fun! This will probably be it for me in Xiangshan so I'm going to give this place everything I've got for 6 more weeks! I love it here and am so grateful for the opportunity to stay a little longer! 

I love you and miss you all! Have a blessed week!! 

Much love, Elder Jensen!